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Wow you guys spend alot on living. Here is my budget, then again I pride myself in being able to live on little. Which is kind of odd but I really enjoyed the college years where you didn't have much & as a result didn't have much worries.

housing - 400$, rent a room. Nothing special. Try and find a place where people share the same lifestyle. I personally enjoy the college/party lifestyle.
Utilities - paid for by owner. Unless for some reason you run the bills up.
Food - 100$
Gas & auto expense - 100$
Mobile phone - 20$ use prepaid card.
Insurance - 100$. Single person.
Cable - paid for by owner or 10$ for netflix account.
Misc - 100$.

So around 800-1k monthly expense. The rest of the income divert to investment portfolio. You can also lower the per person expenses even more by doubling up with a roommate or girlfriend. I know some people who live on 400$/month but they go without alot of stuff like health insurance and a car. The trick is getting the housing expense down by having 3+ people live in a room. Which isn't too bad if most of the roommates are out of the house doing other stuff.

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good luck...sounds like you have figured out our tax system (good luck)...
curious what you found out about health insurance costs?? try and keep to PPO if you can...
am a pro at health ins questions..again..HMO is cheaper but many providers are starting not to take it...with the exception of Kaiser...worked for them for 20 years...in OC we gave excellent care..they recently built a new hospital..clinics everywhere for non inpatient care..and excellent docs ..

I had kaiser as a kid growing up back in the day. Was good coverage. Then I started paying for my own insurance and kaiser was the most expensive option. Probably 20% more expensive.

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if you do a quick google search...approx 77% of Americans are paying premiums for healthcare thru their employers...some areas of the county do indeed pay all of the premiums...Ca is not one of them...

There is one problem to that. If you get sick and lose your job you lose your coverage! Seen it happen to lots of people.

@nurserosie - Thanks for that wonderful list of stores whereby I can reduce my monthly grocery bills. The only reason for pitting my Grocery bills at 800 was that Indian produce (suiting the Indian pallette) might be a bit pricey !!!
About the health insurance. I'm working for a global IT giant and they will be taking care of mine and my family's healthcare (copays and some incidentals might be going out of my pocket though) but could you please let me know out of your experience how much might I be spending on schooling for my daughter ??? and also are the indicative $ figures that I have put up good enough ???

if you are talking about your 5 year old..she will be old enuf to enter public kindergarten...which your taxes pay for..

as for the little ones..sorry..have no numbers for that to share with you..

if you would like..send me a private message (PM) if you would like to share what health insurance your company provides you with (how great that it sounds like they are paying the monthly premiums!!)..and maybe I can search and find out what your out of pocket costs might be..copays can vary widely..some are like 25 dollars a visit..others might be 50 dollars a visit..

I would not worry about finding a source for your Indian produce..Irvine esp has a lot of produce marts..yes they may be mostly Asian..but bet there is a lot of stuff you like and use as well...for non produce..my suggestions will help you save money on "essentials"..Target for instance has GREAT clothes for your kids..at great prices...

again..send me a PM if you have other issues that you might want to keep private

no university employees get their healthcare FREE....there is a monthly premium..plus share of costs like deductibles..etc...

I cannot think of any American employee that gives healthcare free..except perhaps the CEO level...

tho university insurance can be very inclusive..it is not paid for without employee chipping in..

Quoting on an old post for sure, but my company pays my healthcare for free, and I'm only staff level, not CEO.

My deductible is $150, that's it. Since I'm having a baby this has worked wonders...got the deductible out of the way early and every doctor's appointment/ultrasound has cost me nothing out of pocket. I even had complications and had to stay overnight in the hospital around week 22, and that cost me $0. (The bill looked something like $15,000).

My spouse and my child aren't free through my company, I'd have to pay my share of the premium for them. But, it helps a lot not having to pay for myself every paycheck.

Quoting on an old post for sure, but my company pays my healthcare for free, and I'm only staff level, not CEO.

My deductible is $150, that's it. Since I'm having a baby this has worked wonders...got the deductible out of the way early and every doctor's appointment/ultrasound has cost me nothing out of pocket. I even had complications and had to stay overnight in the hospital around week 22, and that cost me $0. (The bill looked something like $15,000).

My spouse and my child aren't free through my company, I'd have to pay my share of the premium for them. But, it helps a lot not having to pay for myself every paycheck.

thanks for clearing that up...I was thinking of family or at least spouse...

whatever you have it sounds like a great plan

and yes..since my spouse was CEO we always got me and his kids paid for as well...not to mention that each year when the company had to evaluate plans..I was always included in the discussion..and made sure they chose a plan I would feel comfortable using..

it got to the point where they had to have both PPO and HMO options,,as the lower salaried hourly people could not afford the PPO plans (only the CEO got his paid for..tho he earned it!!)

I spend around $7,000 a month on expenses for just myself living outside of Boston in what is considered a blue collar lower - middle class city/suburb on the North Shore of MA. I have no wife, child or even pet to support and my rent is $1,830 for a 2 bedroom apartment.

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